“I think if someone is getting public money, it’s perfectly appropriate to have them fingerprinted,” Brooklyn DA Joe Hynes told The Post.

After taking office earlier this month, Cuomo appointed Hynes – the state’s first Medicaid-fraud prosecutor three decades ago – to provide him with recommendations on running the AG’s Medicaid fraud-control unit.

Cuomo said he will outline his anti-Medicaid fraud plan after getting Hynes’ report.

“I have in my pocket a shield and an ID, and I have to be fingerprinted for that. I’m getting public monies,” Hynes said.

Some advocates for the needy claim that “finger imaging” stigmatizes applicants and discourages them from getting health insurance.

Hynes disagrees.

“I don’t think it’s an intrusion at all,” Hynes said.

The state has had a law on the books since 1997 requiring fingerprinting for Medicaid benefits, but never enforced it in New York City. The city, in turn, never implemented it.

Also, the law exempts a majority of Medicaid recipients who are served in health-care facilities such as nursing homes.

Nassau County fingerprints Medicaid recipients, but a spokesman noted that of the 118,000 recipients, 95,000 are exempt under the law.

By comparison, all applicants for food stamps and other cash welfare grants are fingerprinted.

When former Mayor Rudy Giuliani implemented a finger-imaging program for the city’s public-assistance programs a decade ago, the welfare rolls plummeted – and officials at the time said the requirement discouraged scam artists from applying.

Social-service officials said it’s more difficult to fingerprint Medicaid applicants because many community and not-for-profit groups help enroll recipients. Welfare recipients typically enroll at government offices.